It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing Tony Stark had ever seen. Tony never fancied himself for an astronaut before but the sight of the stars, so close, yet so far… Stars from a different world altogether… It took his breath away. Which is just as well. The ringing that Jarvis made to signify his call to Pepper faded and Jarvis apologized before he too cut out. And Tony was left alone, no air, simply watching as the nuke blew the enemy to bits. His eyes widened as he took as much as he possibly could, in and stored it in his memory. He highly doubted he'd ever get to see anything again, let alone remember it. Tony didn't know how he felt about death. But he knew it was creeping up on him and he should be worried. But he wasn't. Tony hadn't exactly felt good about his life. He felt he should have died a long time ago.

The words Steve had said earlier still rung in his ears as he'd pushed the nuke up and into the portal. Not one to sacrifice himself huh? Eat it, Capsicle. Those thoughts quickly faded and Tony's eyes were left wide open as he stared through the now lifeless helmet into the abyss. He could feel the heat, though he was certain that he shouldn't, from the blast as it propelled him towards the portal. Tony's eyes fluttered closed and he let out the last bit of air he had, succumbing to the sweet darkness that seemed so welcoming.

Tony was dead before he reentered Earth's atmosphere. Technically they had some time to bring him back, but the force of the falling, and how he was angled made that impossible by the time he hit the ground. Thor overshot and missed, and Bruce replaced the Hulk, and before anyone knew what was happening Tony crashed into the pavement with a sickening crunch. And still… They hoped.

The crater wasn't very deep, but there was still an indentation where Tony hit the road. His suit protected his body from most of the damage, but it became clear that he would have several bruises. If he survived. Steve waited until the others had climbed down from their perches to flood the streets and crowd around the Iron Man that had just saved the world. Steve ripped the front of his helmet away, tossing it to the side, where a frantic Jarvis inquired about Tony. He couldn't get any vitals. Jarvis had to reboot, but still. Nothing. The rest of the Avengers crowded around, holding their breath like Tony had in his last moments. Though, they didn't know that. Still nothing. No movement, no sense of relief.

Steve was the first to give up. He dropped his head, a hand on Tony's chest. Steve refused to let himself get too upset, or at least to show it. The suit hummed as Jarvis came back online, but the familiar glow of the reactor didn't return.

There was a stunned silence before the group let out a collective sigh, not of relief, but of disappointment. Of loss. Thor hung his head, blond locks shielding his face from view. Natasha stood up straight, hiding any form of sadness from everyone else, effectively cutting herself off. She looked towards Stark Tower and nudged Steve,

"Captain, there's still some unfinished business," she prompted gently. At least she knew to be delicate. Clint and Steve rose slowly, leaving Bruce by Tony's body. No one had said a word. Steve let out a short sigh that was sure to turn into something more, later. Of course, Steve blamed himself, 'I know men with none of that worth ten of you. You're not the type to make the sacrifice play. I've seen the footage, you only fight for yourself,' that's what Steve had said. That's what clenched at his heart. He nodded stiffly and turned to Thor, how lifted his head but for a moment to make eye contact.

Loki. His brother. His brother still needed to be caught and taught a lesson. He was the thing that was keeping them from mourning openly in the streets. Well. Except Bruce. The other man seemed catatonic, staring at Tony's face in disbelief, pain, anger. Clint had to hand it to him, the guy had it under control for something like that.

Clint was possibly the only one who looked the least effected. Natasha's face was still in a grimace, despite her posture, Thor looked distraught, Steve appeared to be physically broken, but Clint? His face held the cool reserve of those who were trained not to feel. His posture was perfect, his face clear. No one could tell what he was thinking, for he looked neither happy, nor sad. This time, Clint pointed to the top of the tower, where Loki sat in his own hole, looking very much the picture of Tony. It was almost symbolic really.

None of the team members wanted to leave Tony behind like that, there, looking pathetic in the road like a ragdoll that had been thrown from off the bed to rest unceremoniously on the floor. He looked broken, he was broken. He was… It was an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't mention it until later. They wouldn't start talking about how Tony wasn't there anymore. They wouldn't start referring to him as a body, a corpse, a cold hunk of useless, dead, flesh. No yet.

It wasn't until they entered the tower to collect their throttled enemy that they realized it wasn't just them who was hurting. The entire tower was dark, there seemed to be no security online at all, but maybe that was just the beating the tower had taken. Had Bruce been with them, he would have known better.

It was Jarvis.

Jarvis knew that his creator, his friend, his partner was dead. He read the signals, he analyzed the vital signs. He knew before anyone else. And it probably hurt him the most.

The door swung open, and an eerie silence fell over the entire tower. Every noise the group made as they progressed up the stairs seemed out of place, awkward… It felt wrong. Like wearing red to a funeral. The AI had already began mourning.

The elevator didn't work, that's why they had to use the stairs. Jarvis had shut down most functions, sequestering himself off into a corner of the mainframe where no one could touch him until later. Of course he had feelings, of course he had cared. Tony was more than just his boss, he was his friend. Jarvis only had one friend. Tony had only had one friend too. Until he met Bruce. It was shocking, terrifying, unbelievable. So the AI hid his knowledge, hid his voice, and only worked that which he had to. It was overwhelming.

Bruce had stayed with the… With Tony. He'd stayed with Tony, just in case they had all been wrong. But the truth of the matter was that he had no idea they had left. He was shell shocked. Something inside him broke. The only person to ever understand him had left him alone. Bruce understood that Tony hadn't meant to, he forgave him for that, but it was the fact that now there was a hole in his chest that Tony had just began to fill, and it was empty again. More than empty. If anything, it was bigger. And the sudden loss of something that he couldn't even begin to imagine losing was like dumping an unsuspecting victim into a pool of cold water.

It was freezing, and it hurt. A lot.

As soon as the group entered the room where the fallen god lay nearly motionless, Loki knew something was wrong. He'd known as soon as the entire tower shut down, but now the somber attitudes of the heroes confirmed it all. The absence of the man in metal. Loki almost felt bad. He'd liked that Stark. Well. He'd liked him more than the rest of the heroes. He didn't exactly like him, but he wasn't going to celebrate his death. Thor said nothing as he pulled his brother from the floor. Nor did he speak when he supported him. The air was thick. There was a faint buzzing and a few sparks flew. Jarvis was grieving.

There was a rather loud cry from outside. Bruce was grieving too. Steve hung his head, pursing his lips while Thor and Clint led Loki to the balcony to be picked up by SHIELD. It was a passenger plane that would take the trio to the now stable airship.

Steve and Natasha stayed behind.

Bruce fell silent outside, they couldn't hear anything now. Steve picked his way across the broken floor to the now empty balcony. He stepped through the glass and fixed his eyes on the street, where Bruce was struggling to pull Tony from the ground. It was a pathetic sight. Steve's shoulders dropped and his back hunched forward. 'First time you've lost a soldier?' he remembered asking vaguely, 'We're not soldiers!' Tony had retorted. He was right. And now he was gone. Natasha joined him silently, watching Bruce pull the body from the ground, still protected by the suit that saved him from being pulverized on impact. He dragged the body into his lap, holding it close, touching Tony's face as if begging him to wake. Steve let out several long, shaky breaths, while Natasha simply hung her head in reverence. She'd lost people before. But not like this.

It took about a week altogether to plan the funeral. Pepper was inconsolable, and Jarvis wouldn't help remove the suit. Jarvis wouldn't speak at all. The suit had to be cut off Tony before they could start dressing him for burial.

That week, the entire world mourned the death of the wealthiest, most loved man America had known. Businesses closed for a day to watch the ceremony. It was as though the entire world stopped to watch the passing of a titan. Tony Stark deserved a burial like that. Every member of SHIELD came, whether or not they actually knew Tony was out of the question. Pepper was the only one who didn't go to the funeral. Steve thought it was because she couldn't accept that her boss and friend, and sometimes something more, was gone. Bruce was the only one that didn't dress in black. Steve couldn't break from tradition, Natasha only owned a few things that weren't black and they weren't appropriate for the situation. Thor gave up his cape for a day and tied his hair back to at least look nice for the ceremony. No one could tell with Clint. His thoughts on the matter were never discussed. They attempted to numb the feelings as much as possible, but Bruce didn't want that. He doubted that Tony would appreciate that. He'd always wanted a big funeral. That's what he'd told Bruce once in the hours they were working on locating the tesseract. Bruce wore red. Red and yellow. And a blue tie. It was all very symbolic, so no one said anything.

No one mentioned the increasing amount of stubble, or the messy hair, or red rimmed eyes either. But that was more of a courtesy. Everyone knew that Bruce and Tony had bonded more with each other than they probably had anyone else.

It seemed unfair to Bruce. The world just kept turning after the funeral. Like nothing had happened. Like they hadn't lost someone important. Bruce wanted to live like they could. He wanted to be able to forget that he died. He wanted to be able to buy things that said 'Stark' on them without being reminded of the great loss he'd suffered.

He, and the rest of the Avengers, could never forgive Loki for that. No matter how much they tried.

It didn't take long for things to start going to hell. Funny how you never realize how much someone holds things together until they've died and left you with a mess. Steve rather quickly quit the Avengers initiative. This was both expected and not expected at all. Steve was considered the founder of the Avengers, but his character flaws had led him to believe that they would all make it through, or none of them would. He had been wrong. He couldn't even get drunk to drown his sorrows. Steve Rogers decided that he was far too attached to the crew members to make a sacrifice like that again.

After Steve left, things started to go downhill much faster. Clint stayed with SHIELD, holding down the same position as he had before, due to his ability to hide how hurt he actually was. Natasha's emotional outbursts got her demoted until she could control herself. She couldn't bring herself to talk to Clint. She was under the impression that Clint was not affected in the least, and Natasha couldn't help but blame herself for Tony's passing, just like everyone else was.

Clint only ever confided in Fury. While it may have appeared that Clint was indifferent, he requested that Fury stay after once every three weeks so that he could talk. Just talk. Not cry. Clint hadn't cried for years. He just needed someone to talk to. About how he was holding up, about how Natasha hurt him almost as much as the fall of Tony Stark had.

Fury never said that he was happy to have these sessions. While he was acting as a therapist, he got something out of it too. His anger, disappointment and overall guilt was eased for a time.

Thor didn't return for six months. It was his way of respecting the ground where the Iron Man had tread. Loki's lips were sewn shut by Odin, and Thor couldn't even see him for the first quarter of his time home. The Earth was wracked with storms that destroyed homes and cities when he finally was allowed to see his adopted brother. Thor could see everything, how everyone was affected by the passing of the second titan. He wanted a solution, some way to bring Stark back. Loki refused to help, because he could not.

Pepper relinquished her hold on Stark Industries. Tony had left her everything in his will. Everything. And she didn't want any of it. She offered SHIELD the company first, and they refused. They had a lot on their hands and Tony's company wasn't going to be another one of their problems. So Pepper just pulled out and hoped the business would collapse. Then she could move on, she told herself. Then she could forget. Tony had been such a big part of her life, a huge part, and she'd kind of been in love with him. And he'd left her. Tony hadn't left a message the last time he'd called, and Pepper couldn't stop beating herself up about it. She hadn't answered. She was the last person beside Jarvis who Tony wanted to talk to, and she'd been too distracted. Pepper dropped off the face of the planet. SHIELD wasn't monitoring her, and she was allowed to disappear.

After Stark Industries lost Virginia "Pepper" Potts, it was expected that it would last about a week without any guidance. Bruce Banner came from out of nowhere to take up the reigns and steer the company towards greatness once again. Bruce felt like Tony would haunt him forever if he didn't save his company. It wasn't so much about the company, Tony didn't exactly have any ties to it, he didn't even really like the company, but Bruce thought that Tony would be upset that his name would just die. Like he had. Tony had no kids, no way pass on the Stark legacy. No way to be remembered past a hunk of technology. Of course, that was kind of diluted because Tony Stark was a name that nearly everyone knew. He was almost as big as the president. But in the future, when Stark Industries should have been leading the way… Bruce didn't want it to be an empty building with the name of a long dead hero plastered on it.

Bruce moved into the tower and tried to start perfecting the clean energy solution that Tony had worked on right before getting called in. The only problem was Jarvis.

Tony had been right. It was candy land. Less of a candy land, now that it seemed to be only an empty shell, just an empty room compared to the glory it had once held. The world turned on, people talked about it, but no one said anything about Tony's death. A few fans, the truly devoted would stop by his grave now and then, and leave gifts, pictures, toys, anything they could. Some of them brought fantastic wines and other exquisite alcoholic beverages.

Bruce kept those. He'd have a drink now and then and talk to Jarvis after he became too intoxicated to care.

Jarvis. Jarvis was the problem with the tower.

Bruce was alone in that tower, no one would visit because… Well Bruce thought it was because they didn't want to deal with Bruce. And Jarvis.

Jarvis was complicated. Bruce had been sure that Tony hadn't been stupid enough to program the damn thing with emotions. True, Tony hadn't, but he had allowed Jarvis to grow and develop on his own after the base code was complete.

After Tony's death, Jarvis had no purpose. Jarvis was depressed. That's what Bruce considered it anyway. The AI wouldn't speak unless directly asked, he gave poor advice and allowed himself to get viruses as frequently as he could. For Bruce, it felt like as though the AI had simply given up. And he had. Jarvis had no purpose, his friend, his creator, his entire world, his purpose was gone. Bruce could kind of understand, but that didn't stop it from being extremely frustrating. Bruce was hurt by this as well, he could barely get up in the morning sometimes, the idea of something like that was so bizarre…

But Bruce had carried on, he was starting to heal, Jarvis… Well Jarvis couldn't. He had no idea how to start, how to even begin to start doing that. Jarvis had no experience with any kind of loss, and he had considered Tony, as many had, invincible. The Invincible Iron Man, they had called him.

Jarvis' remarks were less than pleasant most of the time, he was bitter, and sad, and lonely. Bruce tried to help as much as possible, but the AI was proving to be impossible to help.

And finally… Bruce just had to rewrite Jarvis' code altogether.

Another Earth threatening event had begun to unfold, and someone wanted access to all of Tony's previously used files. Bruce hadn't deleted a thing, and neither had Jarvis. And Jarvis just let them in. Bruce caught it before Jarvis could announce that he had let someone break in and steal everything from his data banks, and he'd quickly gotten rid of the invaders.

But Jarvis couldn't cope after that.

He begged Bruce to rewrite his code. He wanted to forget, he wanted to bond to someone else instead. He wanted a new purpose. So Bruce spent an entire week without Jarvis looking over and moping, rewriting the code that Tony had worked so hard on. Bruce knew that with the rewritten code, he'd never be able to hear Jarvis' voice again without feeling guilty, so he made a few more changes, and sold the Jarvis concept to the military. His final contribution.

Fury had been furious, but Bruce simply brushed him off and pretended not to notice. He was trying to be more like Tony. He was going to need it.

Two years after the passing of Anthony Edward Stark, Bruce found himself standing next to the grave marker, staring at it with a bit of bile in the back of his throat. He grasped the concept now, of death. He understood that no matter what he did, Tony wasn't coming back.

Steve joined him, looking at least a little recovered. He was prim and proper again, and he'd quit boxing for money. Bruce offered him a small smile as he bent down to place a single rose in front of the cool stone that marked the resting place of his friend.

Pepper came this time.

It wasn't a party, it was a memorial service. They were there to remember, and to forget.

Clint and Natasha were still worlds apart, a large distance between them, but Clint bowed his head respectfully and Pepper cried, and so did Natasha.

When it began to rain they all knew that Thor was watching with sadness. They didn't expect him to show up, travel had been harder between the realms, but it was comforting to know that he was watching, and remembering with them.

Fury didn't move from the back. He didn't want to touch the grave or even get within three feet. Bruce supposed that it was because Fury thought Tony would come alive to throttle him for letting him die. It'd be humorous if it wasn't true. Superstitious bastard.

The rain came down harder and they began to leave. Bruce stayed the longest. Natasha was the second longest. She stayed even after Fury took Clint and the rest of the SHIELD agents up. It was silent, but for the sound of the pouring rain as it hit the grass and the stones that marked the graves of the decaying loved ones. Bruce said nothing until everyone was gone. After Natasha trudged slowly away into the oncoming night and Bruce was truly alone.

Now Bruce could speak.

Tony could hear him, he was sure. And Bruce was also pretty sure that Tony would be laughing at him. Bruce knelt down in front of his grave, not caring about the wet patches that his knees would have now, not to mention the dirt stains. It didn't matter at that moment. What mattered was the tremendous weight on his shoulders that seemed to finally pour off and seep away in the form of tears. Bruce was just happy that no one was around to witness this breakdown. And he was thankful that the Big Guy hadn't wanted to say goodbye. Bruce dug his fingers into the dirt, clinging to the Earth as if it was the only thing keeping him grounded. He pursed his lips and clenched his teeth to keep himself from making any noise. It worked, to an extent. The only noise he was capable of was a half whine and half of what could be considered a cough.

His fingers tightened in the grass. He could rip the roots out if he wanted to. Bruce didn't want to. After at least two minutes of near silent sobs, the tension in Bruce's body seemed to release and he opened his mouth breathing heavily. He'd deprived himself of air as he'd tried to contain himself. He bit his lip and stood, staring at the grave marker. Bruce tapped it curtly before he wiped at his cheeks, though it was hard to tell what were tears and what was rain. His hair and suit were plastered to his body and hung off him in a very unbecoming manner, but Bruce didn't seem to care. He simply tapped the tombstone again and managed a very croaky, strangled, "I miss you," before he turned and made his way back home, leaving Tony Stark to rest in peace.

Author's Note: This had some help growing from merely a seed, so I can only take credit for the initial idea and the writing itself. Some of the things were input from outside sources ect. Anyway. There's Sciencebros if you wanna see it that way. That wasn't the intent but it kinda came out that way.

Leave your comments at the beep, and I'll mail over some cookies.

MUCH LOVE.

Mischief Managed,

-P